Paris: Still Doing It De Gaulle's Way

Fourth of n Other Cloaks, Other Daggers---IV from both left and right, De By Jim Hoagland ' Gaulle did not want a con- counts written by disgruntled insulated from the reper- centration of power in any one W.1,1011110. POV FON,V1 Serv,e agents hoping to clear their cussions. security service. Yet he was PARIS—French • in- own names or to turn a profit An important layer of the not one to pay attention to the telligence services have with a sensationalized best insulation consists of the details of the daily operation routinely undertaken covert seller. multiplicity of French in- of government. operations in foreign coun- But there has been nothing telligence operations. At least In wartime De Gaulle's tries, been involved in the comparable here to the U.S. four different groups in followers got into the habit of assassination of opponents Senate's attempt to delineate France carry out the kinds of not placing too fine a point on and conducted internal spying publicly the political operations that have brought the legal niceties. The Free on political dissidents since responsibility for the kinds of the CIA and FBI under sharp French movement based in World War II, according to sins laid at the door of the U.S. criticism in the United States. London was constantly on the published accounts of former Central Intelligence Agency. The proliferation grew up lookout for double agents French operatives and to There have been internal under Gen. Charles de Gaulle, slipping across the English interviews with French and housec leanings at lower levels who encouraged security Channel from Nazi-occupied foreign experts on the in- after some of the more services that "paralleled" France to join the Gaullist telligence community here. spectacular French failures, government agencies and resistance Movement. A Many of the French exploits but they have been carried out were loyal only to him and not number of bodies of presumed have become well-known quietly, if at times brutally, to the formal bureaucracy, through leaks to the press and and always with the top Faced at different times with through highly partisan ac- figures of the regime carefully serious threats of civil war See SPYING, A9, Col. -1 e.

SPYING, From Al double agents were Aug up. at one point from the, cellar of a London building used by the .Piee Fi-ench. in the interest Of allied unity, the scandal of .unofficial French justice having been meted, out on British soil was hushed up. „Even after the war, at last some of the GaUllist .operatives seemed tn:,have maintained the attitude that yriier.e onside the laW:and ten:, de Gaulle did little to .diSfabt:sSe them of that nohtm, De Gaulle's successors, the late Georges Pompidou and France's current president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, moved to centralize important intelligence functions. Giscard has sharply curtailed the freewheeling activities of fringe operatives who mixed intelligence with drug smuggling, vice and gangland rivalries. Under Giscard, the 2,000- man French equivalent of the CIA, the service of .external documentation and coun- terespionage, whose French acronym is SDECE, has become more professionalized and is cooperating more closely with the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies than under De Gaulle. Copyright Alfred Elseestaecit, Time Inc. The French services are PHILIPPE DE VOSJOLI also putting more of their - ...CIA connection resources into straight commercial and economic espionage and monitoring of Communist country com- munications and movements, and sharply deemphasizing their once paramount political role in former French colonies in Africa, according to French and diplomatic sources. "Under Giscard, there is a much more realistic approach to what a small service can do, and a much more hardheaded economic approach to what French interests abroad are," says one foreign expert. "The days of intervening directly in Africa for sentiment or the glory of France seem to be over." Btit Africa and com- partmentalization are still important elements of French covert operations. SDECE, with Giscard's evident approval, is now cooperating, for example. with the CIA and Zaire's 'President Mobutu Sese Seko by channeling arms and money to Holden. 'Roberto's National:;,Froot ;for the Liberatia..of 'cording efraFrench., African and diplomatic sources. French support without any official government im- primatur is-also gainjidireCtly ,ito the much smaller . Jacques Foccart, center, long linked to President Domani Diori of Niger and liberation front—for the French Intelligence operations in Africa, President Charles de Gaulle at Elysee Cabinda enclave, as looks on during a 1968 meeting between Palace. FLEC, based in Gabon. The support, said to consist of money, arms and the promise Gabon, with an eye on CIA. to recruit mercenaries, is Cabinda's oil reserves, or with Such a body would also have widely believed here to be outstanding political or other extreme difficulty in coming directed by Jacqu% Foccart, debts for Foccart's help ,qprzwith documents or wit once De Gaulle's chief during the De Gaulle and nesses. Foccart carted oft;': operative on Africa and the Pompidou days. It is a graphic several truckloads of , reputed boss of France's dirty demonstration of the per- documents after the deaths of tricks sector under both De sonalization of power by the De Gaulle and Pompidou and Gaulle and Pompidou. Gaullists outside the channels some of the key figures in The two largely independent of government. scandals brought to public operations represent more Foccart, 64, was elbowed light have died vtolent deaths. than the kind of routine out of his job as presidential covering of bets that in- The four major French adviser shortly after Giscard intelligence services are: telligence services often was elected in 1974 and now I.—SDECE founded after make. runs a large export-import World War II with help from SDECE 's interests in company here. His network of Angola seem to be largely American intelligence; the informants and operatives is service is known as the strategic, although there is a still largely intact, although "swimming pool" by the healthy dose of economic diplomats report that the self-interest involved. The French because of the apparatus no longer receives proximity of its headquarters French share American any substantial amount of to the Tourelles swimming concern about the spread of government money. Communism and Soviet in- pool on the outskirts of Paris. The post-World War II The service is formally part fluence In Africa, and are history of Franct's in- interested_ in building their of the ministry of defense but telligence services has been has a direct line of com- • influence in Zaire and stained by repeated scandal, maintaining it in South Africa, munication to the presidency internal intrigue and through one of Giscard's which is also helping the cooperation with criminal National Front and its ally advisers and coordinates elements that makes the closely with Giscard's interior UNITA. known CIA links to the Mafia minister, Michel Poniatowski. Foccart's operation is look small. But no political Like .De Gaulle's interior believed, however, to have body here has had the in- major commercial im- ministers, Poniatowski is dependence or strength to run probably the key man in plications. It is said to be a full-scale inquiry similar to largely financed by the sizable security and intelligence the Senate intelligence policy decisions. private treasury Foccart can committee's report on the put together from French The service's 21000-man companies with interests in force has an official budget of aristocratic Col. Alexandre de about $25 million a year, but Marenches, 55, in 1970 to clean experts say that it can draw on up and revitalize the service, $50 million hidden elsewhere shaken by discovery of serious in the budget in any given Communist infiltration, the year. Agents' expense ac- linking of some of its agents to counts are reportedly severely drug smuggling and the purge scrutinized by finance De Gaulle ordered after ministry officials delegated to SDECE's role in helping the swimming pool. arrange the 1965 kidnaping in Most of its agents abroad Paris that led to the presumed murder of Moroccan dissident kept fully informed of secret Mehdi Ben Barka became American negotiating public knowledge, That proposals during this year's operation was apparently a "deal of the century," when return favor to the Moroccan American and French secret services in return for manufacturers competed to past favors rendered. sell jet fighters to four SDECE itself routinely smaller European nations. carried out assassinations of De Marenches is con- gun runners and Algerian centrating on recruiting rebels during the Algerian graduates of France's most revolt, according to former prestigious universities to fill SDECE agents: lower level vacancies and has In a scenario distinctly brought military men into the reminiscent of CIA top ranks of the service's discussions on how to kill operational branches to exert Lumumba and Castro, one more control. agent has described how the 2.—The Directorate of service considered 'Territorial Surveillance eliminating a gun runner comes under Poniatowski's named Marcel Leopold by direct control and handles DE MARENCHES poisoning the milk bottles on counterespionage inside ...picked up the pieces his doorstep br,sending him a France,....There is strong bomb in a book (both rejected evidence that the DST taps the appear to operate under because they. might harm the phones of the embassies not diplomatic cover as military larget'S family) before doing only of all Communist nations, attaches in embassies. In the him in with a poison dart from but also of Israel, key former past, much of their work has a-blciwgun fashioned out of a French colonies and probably been confined to traditional bicycle pump.' ' the United States and Britain. intelligence-gathering, while The service's former top "We know our phones are covert operations were left to liaison man with the CIA in tapped," said a diplomat in an Foccart's network. Washington, Philippe embassy where electronic The service maintains that Thyraud de Vosjoli, claims in tests have been run. it only operates abroad. But a , a book published in Canada The DST was also im- secret SDECE report obtained last month that a committee plicated in an attempt to tap by The Washington Post„:: headed by Pompidou, then De the offices of France's leading shows SDECE surveillance of Gaulle's prime minister, satirical newspaper, Le French dissidents and foreign:' approved, plans to have Canard Enchaine, which has leftists in France and what SDECE assassinate foreign published exposes on the appears to be routine leaders, including Sekou French police, intelligence, distribution of such reports to Toure of Guinea and Habib. arms dealings and other the ministry of the interior, Bourguiba of Tunisia during • sensitive subjects. the national. police and the the 1960s. Both men are still in The DST turned over to interior ministry's domestic Powqr, Foccart's network lists of counterespionage agency. Vosjoli was forced to leave suspected dissidents in The May 1972 report con- the service after becoming too Marseilles, Grenoble and cerns meetings in Toulouse close to the CIA for De i Lyons during the upheavals of between French intellectuals Gaulle's liking. May 1968 as part of a plan to and leftists from Cuba, Brazil De Marenches has been able round up and intern potential and Uruguay identified by the to reestablish fairly good troublemakers in soccer service as Communist agents. working relations with the stadiums or camps, according Reflecting a deep-rooted American agency, according to unrefuted documents French distrust of secret published by the French press services, governments here •to French and foreign sources. last yea r. have avoided naming CIA Deputy Director Vernon professional spies to head Walters reportedly praised SDECE. High-ranking SDECE in Paris for its military men, whose disputes cooperation during the with their career cloak and Vietnam peace talks here. dagger deputies have The portly De Marenches produced much of the in- has also intensified com- formation that has leaked out mercial spying. A French about the service, have source who usually offers no usually held the post. Pompidou appointed the compliments to the service says that the French were national police has frequently worked closely with all three of the other services. Its primary mission is internal political espionage. It appears to bs the least trusted of the intelligence services, partly because it is highly politicized without having declared exclusive allegiance to De Gaulle and his successors. Following the established tradition of the pre-De Gaulle era, agents appear not to be above trying to curry favor with opposition groups of today that might be in power tomorrow. "Sure, we knew the RG was SEKOU TOURE HABIB BOURGUIBA spying on us during the ...still in power despite being targeted campaign," says a Socialist

Indications have emerged recently that the source of those documents was a former journalist named Dominique Calzi, who says he was a Party official of the 1974 member of Foccart's. presidential elections. Can- " parallel" police and was able didate Francois "Mitterrand to make off with copies of always had the radio playing many of its documents. Calzi, who was jailed on in his office and the blinds longstanding charges shortly drawn when we discussed after the leaks about the DST campaign plans. Anyway, we lists appeared, published his were getting information own account last month of that incident and of more than a dozen other major scandals, accusing Foccart's men of the Ben Barka kidnaping, gold and drug smuggling, the kidnaping in West Germany of ANTOINE ARGOUD MEHDI BEN BARKA Col. Antoine Argoud, a top ...Foccart's operatives got their men from the RG, too, so the leader of the military men regime could not be too who rebelled against De confident of Its Information on Gaulle over Algeria, and of ranging from dedicated us." murdering African exile Gaullist war veterans to the But a more expert and leader Felix Moumie in most violent thugs in the , detached observer of that Geneva in 1960, Marseilles underground, campaign recalled: "Yes, the 3.—The Civil Action Service according CO Calzi. Socialists were getting a little is the formal name of Foe- Foccart's men were placed information, but they cart's network, known by its in key positions on develop- couldn't have been getting French initials, SAC, or more ment boards and agencies much because an RG agent popularly as "Les Barbouzes" channeling government funds infiltrated their top planning (the false beards). to Black Africa, giving them staff and they didn't know It According to Calzi and other life-and-death powers over the until it came out in the French sources, Foccart built weakest regimes and, it is papers." his network out of the strong- often said, the chance to A ministry of interior of- arm "order" section of De gather large kickbacks from ficial described the section's Gaulle's postwar political cooperative regimes for SAC's functions "as a kind of public movement, the authoritarian- treasury and that of the opinion poll, that's all. They inclined Rally of the French Gaullist Party-generally. are just there to let the People. Originally conceived SAC frequently intervened government know what the by De Gaulle and Foccart as a to pluck criminals from prison people are thinking politically, means to infiltrate the state for important missions like services and prepare the way so we can have a good idea of the Argoud kidnaping and a what we should do." for taking power, the unof- number of murders Calzi pins ficial service grew rapidly 'on SAC operatives. He NEXT Alow The Chinese Spy during the Algerian war and charges that drug operations, became the chief instrument holdups and blackmail were of dirty tricks during De •routine ways for SAC to build Gaulle's rule. up its treasury and to reward At its height in recent years, criminals • for 'political SAC had 120 full-time staff operations. • "directors" and could call on 4.—The General Infor- 23,000 ''correspondents"correspondents" mation (RG) section of the A Fruitless Search Foill.- Dellarenches Washington coil FOretgo Sarvica PARIS—The following are the reporter to call back in two excerpts rfrorruitwo telephone days.) conversations in search of S D H: Fine. What number E C E, France's Service de should I call, or what Is the Doeu4entation Exterieure et name of your office? de Contre Espionage (Service 5: No, just call the switch- of External . DocumentAtion board again, and you will find and Counter Espionage), the us. French CIA, headed by Col. Two days later, the reporter Alexandre de Marenches. contacts a Capt, Dulin, aide to De Marenches. Operator: Hello, Minister of Dalin: You know, Col.' De Defense, Operator 46., 2. Marenches has never seen a •Reporter: Could I ba.Ve the journalist and will not now. In office of Mr. De Marenches? Washington, you seem to do 0: Htrun. How do you spell things differently, but in that? I don't have, any name France, I assure you, we don't like that on my list. I'll give do things that way, Besides, yoli information. Hold oil. we could tell you nothing, Second Operator: Hold on. nothing at all. Third Operator:Hold on. it: Could you just tell me It: Excuse me, could you what laws authorize the tell me the number I should existence of S DE CE? call or the name of the office? Dulin: Well, I have never 0: No, I'm not authorized to heard of any and I doubt that tell you the name. Hold on. they exist. In any event, if Secretary: Hello. they do, I don't know them. (The conversation produces One other thing—please tell us a promise of a reply to the when you propose to publish reporter's request for an in- this article. We will read it terview. .The secretary tells closely." —Jim Hoagland t